For the truly mad are those souls devoured with ambition, while the faithful and loyal are called fools. Anthony Esolen

Church Not Church

Christ Our Savior Catholic Church, California Catholic Daily
Shopping mall architecture.
A  new Catholic church will soon sprout from what was once one of Orange County’s last remaining parcels of undeveloped farmland.
Christ Our Savior Catholic Church and new parish buildings are expected to be dedicated in mid-2020 and will be located at Alton Avenue, Bear Street and MacArthur Boulevard in Santa Ana.
[...]
The parish’s new home will be modern, welcoming and inclusive, diocesan officials said. A committee of Christ Our Savior parishioners provided input on the design of the church, which is being designed by San Diego-based domusstudio architecture.
The church’s interior is designed so worshippers can see easily sign language interpreters and video monitors. California sycamore, pink trumpet and olive trees will line outdoor walkways and plazas. An iconic 85-foot cross will reach into the sky.
What do officials mean by the inclusion of the word 'inclusive'? Inclusion of ad orientem worship? of beautiful statuary? of a communion rail? It is difficult to imagine that a communion rail would be part of a "tech-park" aesthetic that dominates the external structure, nor could a rail be accommodated into the "thrust" sanctuary design depicted in the diagram below.

One can only imagine at this point what the interior of the proposed design will look like. Perhaps it will have a "living water" motif such as the one in the same firm's design of another "worship building" said to house Catholics.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel - domusstudio

The cross-form church design has mostly escaped or eluded modern architects. With the cross left out or obscured by meaningful but misapplied images, Catholics see a meandering path. In this day and age of heterodox theology applied to the arts, it is not difficult to interpret the above image as a distortion of the straight path (Mark 1:3; Isaiah 40:3) in the desert (of a banal culture), a distortion of the path who is Jesus Christ - the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). Could we believe, if we understand the image/design is a representation of the Christian message, that - while the bold crucifix is a clear theological statement of the price of our salvation - before Him we are up a creek without a paddle?

Oh - and the tabernacle?

A screen capture of an image included in the Staff Report of the Santa Ana Planning Commission.




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PSALM 37

Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right : for that shall bring a man peace at the last.

POPE LEO XIV

The right to freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, religious freedom, and even the right to life are being restricted in the name of other so-called new rights, with the result that the very framework of human rights is losing its vitality and creating space for force and oppression. This occurs when each right becomes self-referential, and especially when it becomes disconnected from reality, nature, and truth.

ST AUGUSTINE

The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.

SAINT PHILIP NERI

The greatness of our love of God must be tested by the desire we have of suffering for His love.

ANTONIN SCALIA

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility. Liberal Education makes the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life. These are the natural qualities of a large knowledge, they are the objects of a university. But they are no guarantee for sanctity of even for conscientiousness; they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless.

ANONYMOUS

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MARCUS AURELIUS

There is but one thing of real value - to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

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MARK TWAIN

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.